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Cancelled Flight that Hasn't Happened

KamikazeCoPilot
Explorer C

My wife and I purchased a round-trip ticket for her to go to St Louis from New Orleans.  The outbound flight leaves at 5:30 (ish) am tomorrow morning.  She just got a notification that her inbound flight has been cancelled.

The issue isn't rescheduling her SW flight.  The issue is that we booked a regional flight for her to get closer to Marion, which SW doesn't cover.  Now, we're eff'ed out of the money for the subsequent flight.  Why was she cancelled for a service that we paid for when the flight back isn't until Sunday, 31MAR19?

Now we're going to have to pay for ANOTHER FLIGHT from Marion to St. Louis, one-way, last minute because we were cancelled.

Edit:  We also have to pay for more hotel days, too.  This is actually freaking expensive.  Why did this cancellation happen?

4 REPLIES 4

Re: Cancelled Flight that Hasn't Happened

SWDigits
Aviator A
Solution

@KamikazeCoPilot wrote:

Why was she cancelled for a service that we paid for when the flight back isn't until Sunday, 31MAR19?

Now we're going to have to pay for ANOTHER FLIGHT from Marion to St. Louis, one-way, last minute because we were cancelled.

Edit:  We also have to pay for more hotel days, too.  This is actually freaking expensive.  Why did this cancellation happen?


As another customer I agree that it's not an ideal situation. Here is a quote from the linked news article about the impact of grounding the MAX 8 fleet (see below):

"Southwest, which has 34 Max aircraft, is making cancellations five days in advance, with an average of 130 daily cancellations."
Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/american-airlines-and-southwest-cancel-more-boeing-737-max-flights/

My understanding is that Southwest is trying to give some advance notice (i.e. around five days) so that folks aren't left trying to make alternate arrangements at the last minute. Note that even flights that weren't originally scheduled on the MAX 8 are potentially impacted as all the airlines (not just Southwest) try to adjust equipment to meet as much demand as possible.

Any chance you would just drive for the last portion between the Marion area and St. Louis?

None of this is ideal.

Customer | Home airport DCA

Re: Cancelled Flight that Hasn't Happened

KamikazeCoPilot
Explorer C
1.  Any chance you would just drive for the last portion between the Marion area and St. Louis?

2.  None of this is ideal.

2.  I agree, this isn't ideal.

 

1.  I am not going.  This is a solo flight for her.  Our option would be that she sits in the truck with her ex husband for 2 hours going between the two.  For reasons I refuse to explain, we're trying to avoid this.

Re: Cancelled Flight that Hasn't Happened

KamikazeCoPilot
Explorer C
As another customer I agree that it's not an ideal situation. Here is a quote from the linked news article about the impact of grounding the MAX 8 fleet (see below):

"Southwest, which has 34 Max aircraft, is making cancellations five days in advance, with an average of 130 daily cancellations."
Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/american-airlines-and-southwest-cancel-more-boeing-737-max-flights/

My understanding is that Southwest is trying to give some advance notice (i.e. around five days) so that folks aren't left trying to make alternate arrangements at the last minute. Note that even flights that weren't originally scheduled on the MAX 8 are potentially impacted as all the airlines (not just Southwest) try to adjust equipment to meet as much demand as possible.

Seems you were correct.  Their FB person sadi that this is the reason.  Thank you for the response.  We're adjusting our schedule.

 

Edit:  What Southwest said to me on Facebook

Thank you for your patience while I looked in to what happened for your wife’s flight, [My Name].

I am sorry to learn that we were unable to accommodate [my wife's name] on the original day of travel she planned to fly with us, on Sunday the 31st from STL-MSY. Our records indicate that Flight #4508 was one of dozens of flights that were proactively cancelled days in advance as a result of the FAA's mandatory groundings of the Boeing 737-MAX8 aircraft. While I hope that you or her were able to seek an alternative option of rescheduling by contacting our Reservation Team, I am sorry to hear that she incurred unexpected costs as a result of the irregular operations.

Please note, while we certainly understand the inconvenience to our Customers when flights are delayed or canceled due to this, we typically do not offer gestures of goodwill when factors outside of our control (such as Air Traffic Control, inclement weather, government mandated directives, etc.) result in our inability to operate as scheduled.

I have documented your complaint as to what happened to your wife’s flight under reference number: [Reference Number]. However, if she is unable to find an alternative option on Southwest, and chooses not to fly with us, we can look to refund that confirmation number back to the original form of payment. -[Southwest Rep]

Re: Cancelled Flight that Hasn't Happened

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

@KamikazeCoPilot wrote:


Now we're going to have to pay for ANOTHER FLIGHT from Marion to St. Louis, one-way, last minute because we were cancelled.


This may be difficult on short notice, but would taking Amtrak to Carbondale and then ground transport from there to Marion (assuming you meant Marion, IL)  be a solution?

 

Otherwise I suggest talking to Cape Air if you can, they may have some understanding of the issue and be able to offer some reaccomodation (although they are not bound to do that). 

 

It's not like Southwest competes with them for the New Orleans passengers, so perhaps they would understand if you didn't already try them.

 

Amtrak also could be taken on the City of New Orleans train directly to Carbondale, instead of flying to St. Louis.

 

 

 

Home airport MDW, frequent visitor to MCO to see the mouse.